When a man dies with purpose and meaning (e.g., Socrates, because law is worth dying for, or Jesus, because forgiveness is worth dying for), we call it a sacrifice rather than a death...

In both cases, law and forgiveness remain to some degree. Death remains also. But who is driving them now that Socrates and Jesus are declared dead?

It can be argued that certainly Socrates and Jesus aren't. It's certainly our convention to declare this. But is it true? Maybe Socrates and Jesus remain alive and it us prejudicial to claim they are dead.

In Dr. Moody's book, Life After Life, there is the argument that a mental journey may be taken as part of the experience of death, and that journey may be a surprisingly common one for all, where other dead people may be encountered so long as they remain recognizable.

We think of executions as punishment for the most abhorrently wicked among us. What if, instead, we are mistaken and their executions have only released them early into the afterlife to inflict more horrors upon us?

So when you are dead, how will you have judged life? (No need to limit your thoughts to your own life alone. You can extend it towards any and all life.)

Tragic (should be the obvious response here). And I mean like actually tragic, not "tragic but that's why it was beautiful" tardation.

The reasoning behind this is that there is some level of suffering that nothing can justify, and it has surely been far surpassed many times over. Many may never experience this level of suffering in their lives, or may experience it and understand it momentarily and then fail to successfully introspect once it is over and thus be skeptical of this claim.

This world is one where little kids can be kidnapped and drowned in boiling water. The only way to really look at that is with disgust and horror. It'd be better if nothing ever existed at all.

What if death, instead, gets experienced as we experience our development in the womb and towards birth...something for which memory does not serve us in our personal experiences?

Could life, as a human being, simply be another brief stage in the development of mankind...and is the continuing development of tools by which we can kill ourselves and one another an effort to hasten mankind's next step in its journey?

I'm not scratching the surface of anything new here re:death. Moreover, there is the collective instinct for survival that challenges any narrative whatsoever regarding death and what may exist beyond it that has yet to be discovered or shared. The barriers are real, and they are observable. We see it in war even, and we get to see it vividly today.

So why is the word "war" being thrown about in the mainstream media today as if it's an inside joke?

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Is the instinct for survival able to be transcended, and have we now collectively accomplished this? A particular culmination of 20th century philosophy, existentialism, relies on death as a fixture upon which human choice and the freedom to resist the directions of others is irrefutable...because death ends one's capability to be directed, and individuals can choose to die at any moment (suicide).

based on what research i've done, anyone who dies will by necessity judge their own life (and sometimes those of others)---not just abstractly or as a whole, but by reliving every moment and every detail thereof in infinitely more detail, poignancy, and understanding than was experienced during the incarnation. there appears to be a review board of sorts, just after death, where you "sit down" with a relatively small group of ostensibly more experienced souls (for lack of a better term) who then go over everything you've done and experienced in this most recent incarnation alongside you.

unpleasant emotions having a keenness to them that pleasant ones lack, the shame at all the less-than-noble things you've done would be unbearable before these higher-order beings, were it not for their aura of utter benevolence and understanding. rather than shaming you, or even telling you what to do next, they offer empathy and advice for your next incarnation, or for whatever span of time you choose to spend in the bardo before reincarnating.

i'm trying to get some sense of the afterlife/interlife experience through my explorations with Dimitri. i believe it is possible to come into contact with these beings, though perhaps not the exact members of the review board. like attracts like: this is a Hermetic principle, is it not? so maybe by being a higher-order being yourself, you would find it easier to achieve contact with higher-order discarnate entities, rather than the more---shall we say---unpleasant ones.

Last edited by slush puppie; 08-06-2018 at 12:27 AM.

I used to wonder about that myself. Crazy thing is...it's true. All of it. ---Han Solo

We must wade through bitter waters before we reach the sweet. ---Dr. Van Helsing

What you are offering in part echoes the work of Dr. Moody sans the judgment twist. I've been fascinated by his research and what may be happening in the brain during the experience of death.

We presumably have brains similar enough to distinguish us both as humans rather than, say, racoons. It does seem to follow that as we die, we would experience death similarly just as we experience sleep similarly.

I have to admit that when I have made commitments for the day and I accomplish them, I do feel like I have earned a full 7 hrs of uninhibited sleep. So maybe I can come to see after all a place for judgment in the death experience for some people and/or circumstances.